Integrated circuits comprise a variety of circuit elements which are used to implement a circuit design. The circuit design must be laid out or “placed” according to the types and available locations of the circuit elements of an integrated circuit. That is, the components of the circuit design must be assigned or placed in sites of an integrated circuit. In placing components of the circuit design, various factors are considered in deciding on the placement. Efficiency in placing components and improving the efficiency of implementing the components may lead to significant improvements in the use of the integrated circuit devices.
While conventional integrated circuits are inefficient when implementing arithmetic operations typical of digital signal processing (DSP) applications, some integrated circuits may employ circuit blocks which are dedicated to implement DSP functions. However, DSP blocks in conventional devices may lead to inherently inefficient layouts or may lead to inefficient usage of circuits needed to implement the DSP application. That is, an integrated circuit having a DSP block which provides limited functions may result in an inefficient use of circuit resources. A DSP block which may improve the efficiency of a circuit layout may result in significant improvements in the use of the integrated circuit.